WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Maestro #3, by Peter David, German Peralta, Jesus Aburtov, Dale Keown, Jason Keith, and VC's Ariana Maher, on sale now.

Over the years the Hulk faced many threats, but perhaps none more fearsome than himself. When the Hulk squared off against the Maestro, a future version of himself every bit as intelligent and sinister as he was strong, the Green Goliath barely survived the encounter.

With a fusion of superhuman strength and the world's greatest intellect, the Maestro has many weapons and abilities at his disposal, but the one that helped him build his empire was his Dogs o' War.

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The Hulk is known as a creature of brute strength, but in the Maestro's future, the Hulk had multiple personalities fused into one being made up of Banner's intelligence and the Hulk's strength. The Maestro was a twisted future version of that Hulk who ruled over a post-apocalyptic wasteland but up until recently, there weren't many details on just how Maestro came into power, but some light is starting to be shed on how this future came to be. Brute strength isn't enough to run a country, and an army is needed to enforce the will of their leader. When Maestro steps forward to address his people and give them a rallying cry to remake the rest of the country in his image, they are less than thrilled because many of them barely survived the nuclear apocalypse years before. With that in mind, the Dogs o' War were created in the Alchemax labs by Maestro himself and bred to be the perfect machines for his army. When the people protest, Maestro turns the dogs on them, making it obvious how he began his rule, and, ultimately, kept it.

In their debut during The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect by Peter David, George Perez, Tom Smith, and Joe Rosen, the Dogs o' War prove they're not only an impressive army but are also individually very powerful. In fact, one of them, larger than the present-day Hulk and nearly capable of overpowering him, nearly bit his head off during a fight with jaws capable of chomping through adamantium. Said to be able to crush even adamantium in 7.3 seconds, it was clear at the time that they were a force to be reckoned with. Hulk managed to fight it off and they disappeared for a bit, but have returned in the Maestro's origin story.

Showing his rise to power, the Dogs o' War represent the despot's first true evil turn after spending the early parts of his story growing increasingly cynical about the state of humanity. Making few friends with his gruff demeanor, it's been a wonder how he could win himself enough allies to even cultivate an empire, but the Dogs o' War hint that he plans to take the world by force, and there's nobody strong enough to stand in his way.

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That's not to say there is no one willing to try, as the hero Hercules leaps into battle, ready to fight. With the Dogs-o-War freshly released on the populace and Hercules seemingly deranged after years in the dystopic hellscape, there's no guarantee that he can overcome the challenge of the Dogs.

Even if Hercules does take down the Maestro's mechanical army, he still has to deal with this meaner version of the Hulk, which could leave him dead and buried like the rest of the heroes in this impending imperfect future.

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